John Pletz On Technology

City of big data: information meets architecture

Chicago has been a leader in big data and open data — mapping and making public information about everything from the location of libraries to potholes.

Now you can see that data in action, overlaid atop the city, albeit in miniature in a new exhibit that opened this week at the Chicago Architecture Foundation. The exhibit, "Chicago: City of Big Data," shows density of Twitter activity, Divvy use, 311 reports, even the city's information-technology architecture, such as fiber-optic lines and data centers.

It's powered by six projectors mounted above the Architecture Foundation's model of the city at 224 S. Michigan Ave. The exhibit — developed with IBM Corp. and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP — will run into next year.

“It shows how data changes the physical built world,” says John Tolva, an open data advocate and the city's former chief technology officer who also is a board member of the Chicago Architecture Foundation.